Iran Involved in Plot to Assassinate Jews in Sweden

A picture distributed by Swedish Radio shows the Iranian couple who were deported in 2022.

Swedish Radio (SR) revealed on Tuesday that an Iranian man and woman working for Iranian intelligence services were deported to their country in 2022 on charges of planning to assassinate Jews in Sweden.
Mahdi Ramezani and Fereshteh Sanaeifarid were arrested in April 2021, on the outskirts of Stockholm, on suspicion of conspiring to commit a terrorist crime, according to AFP, quoting the Swedish media.
An investigation conducted by Swedish Radio showed that the couple, who obtained asylum in 2017 after pretending to be Afghan refugees, were deported to Iran because they posed a threat to national security.
Due to a lack of evidence, the two were never charged but were reportedly expelled from the country in 2022 for posing a security risk.
“We have strong belief that they were here on a mission on behalf of Iran. They were seen here in Sweden as a very severe security threat. And that’s the reason why they were expelled, even if we couldn’t prosecute them,” deputy chief prosecutor Hans Ihrman told the broadcaster.
No official information was revealed about the two individuals. But SR cited sources saying that they were working on behalf of the IRGC and reportedly identified three different targets, gathering addresses and photographs.
One of the suspected targets was believed to be Aron Verstandig, Chair of the Official Council of Swedish Jewish communities, who told SR that he had received a call from the Swedish Security Service in 2021, informing him that he was believed to be at risk.
He said: “They basically told me that you have been named as one of the targets of a possible terror crime that involves murder.”
The radio station indicated that the two Iranians deny the accusations. There was no comment from the Iranian authorities.
Relations between Sweden and Iran witnessed a crisis after a Swedish court issued a life imprisonment sentence against Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian prison official, for his involvement in mass executions of prisoners, ordered by Tehran in 1988.
In response to Nouri’s trial, Iran detained many Swedish citizens.